EA Staffers Thought About Quitting Due to Wii

“The dynamics changed with the launch of the Wii–play and fun was coming back in, the demographic was changing enormously, and the amount of time to play was being compressed. [They (the staff)] couldn’t take the change of pace. It was hard. A lot of people at that time thought they would move on from our studios–they wanted to chase the core consumer.” - EA’s Peter Moore

Source: Tomsguide.com

This is a quote that really gets to me, and a sentiment that's been heard WAY too often in the last three years. Not only are people who play games bashing the Wii, the developers are as well. I can get behind a man like Peter Moore who has shown how much he really likes the Wii and the ideas that Wii brings to the table. I can't get behind people who say the Wii isn't for gamers. Too many times people say how much graphics are the most important thing they look at in a game. Shouldn't games be about the gameplay? Eye candy is a bonus, not a necessity for a good game and I think Wii has proven that over and over again. Games like Boom Blox, or Shaun White Snowboarding, or Nintendo's own Wii Sports show you that if a game is fun, you'll come back to it again and again.

I've said I'm tired of defending Wii because I shouldn't have to. The experienced gamers say they'll stick to the system that has good games on it, i.e. the 360. Well that's true, it does have good games on it. I can look at my library of Nintendo games that has grown to over 40 titles and point to 40 games that I own that are fun to play. There has only been one game I regretted owning this generation and that was a downloadable NES title that I had never played.

I will fully throw my support behind developers who understand that games are about fun, more than anything. Developers like Peter Moore, the guys at High Voltage Software, Nintendo, Ubisoft and the Rabbids. Too many gamers today are interested in the hyper realistic, gore fests that Gears of War, or Killzone 2, or Prototype offer. While those are all good games in their own right, you can't discount the sheer fun of games like Wii Sports Resort or New Super Mario Bros. Wii will offer. Good art style trumps hyper realism any day. That's why games like the Shaun White series or Ghostbusters: The Video Game got more attention on Wii than they did their counterparts. They were simply more fun to play.